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Emergency Planning

Does your venue have an emergency plan in place? If so, are your staff well aware of the plan and, in an emergency, do they know what they are responsible for and where to go? If you said no to any of the above statements, please get in contact with our Risk Specialists as soon as possible, so that they can assist you in planning and implementing an emergency plan.

An emergency plan should indicate what the emergency response should be: – Preservation of life – Protection of property, assets and the environment – Continuation of operations

An emergency plan should identify the steps each staff member should take in case of an emergency. Under AS 3745 (Standards Australia, 2010a), it states that an emergency plan should be written and also should take into consideration:

– The venue or facility size: This includes the geographical size of the complex, taking into consideration environmental factors, location of dangerous goods, location of where manufacturing and/or processing occurs, and where hazardous chemicals are on the property

– The fire-engineered or life safety features of the facility: fire walls, building to have compartmentation, fire-isolated stairs, active protection such as alarms and sprinklers and fire extinguishers

– The number of and nature of occupants: the emergency plan should take into consideration the occupancy of the venue, levels of responsibility, people with disability, and also visitors that may not be familiar with the venue

– The hours of operation: the emergency plan should take into account any arrangements and people working out of hours.

An emergency plan is vital as it could save lives. Also, staff should have regular drills and meetings where the emergency plan is looked over, so that they know their role in case of emergency. This is as staff members are unaware of the emergency plan, there will be no real plan and people will be flustered and out of control – creating an uncontrollable situation. If you do not have an emergency plan in place or would like to update your plan that you have currently, please contact our Risk Specialists as soon as possible. Emergency plans save lives